strike and strike
the arm of the girl, who gave one cry only and then was still. Sheila
saw the man next to the girl--he was a native officer--secure the
scorpion, and then whip from his pocket a little bag of indigo, dip it
in water, and apply the bag to the wounded arm, immediately easing the
wound. This had all been done so quickly that it was over before the
table had been upset, almost.

"That is the kind of thing we have here," said Lord Mallow. "There is a
lady present who has seen in one day a favourite black child bitten by
a congereel, a large centipede in her nursery, a snake crawl from under
her child's pillow, and her son nearly die from a bite of the black
spider with the red spot on its tail. It is a life that has its
trials--and its compensations."

"I saw a man's head on a pole on my way to King's House. You have to use
firm methods here," Sheila said in reply. "It is not all a rose-garden.
You have to apply force."

Lord Mallow smiled grimly. "C'est la force morale toujours."

"Ah, I should not have thought it was moral force always," was the
ironical reply.

"We have criminals here," declared the governor with aplomb, "and they
need some handling, I assure you. We have in this island one of the
worst criminals in the British Empire."

"Ah, I thought he was in the United States!" answered the girl sedately.

"You mean General George Washington," remarked the governor. "No, it is
one who was a friend and fellow-countryman of yours before he took to
killing unarmed men."

"You refer to Mr. Dyck Calhoun, I doubt not, sir? Well, he is still a
friend of mine, and I saw him today--this afternoon, before I came here.
I understood that the Crown had pardoned his mutiny."

The governor started. He was plainly annoyed.

"The crime is there just the same," he replied. "He mutinied, and he
stole a king's ship, and took command of it, and brought it out here."

"And saved you and your island, I understand."

"Ah, he said that, did he?"

"He said nothing at all to me about it. I have been reading the Jamaica
Cornwall Chronicle the last three years."

"He is ever a source of anxiety to me," declared the governor.

"I knew he was once in Phoenix Park years ago," was the demure yet sharp
reply, "but I thought he was a good citizen here--a good and well-to-do
citizen."

Lord Mallow flushed slightly. "Phoenix Park--ah, he was a capable
fellow with the sword! I said so always, and I'd back him now aga